


A Promise to a Friend

by ober22



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: AU, F/M, Falling out, Introvert Lydia, M/M, Time Jump, car crash, missing person
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-01-19 04:15:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1455025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ober22/pseuds/ober22
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles, Scott, and Lydia were the best of friends until they got into an accident when Stiles' mom was driving them back from school when they were 9. She died on the spot while Scott and Lydia survived. Stiles was never found at the crash site. Grief-stricken and unable to cope, Scott and Lydia stopped talking to each other. It's eight years later, and Lydia swears there's something watching her every time she takes the shortcut through the woods.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Not So Ordinary Wednesday

**Author's Note:**

> Reina was sweet enough to give me permission to attempt a fic based on her AU gif set (http://scottmartinski.tumblr.com/post/76795532190/au-stiles-scott-and-lydia-were-the-best-of). Hopefully I don't mess it up too badly.
> 
> The first part is more of an introduction than a chapter, but I'm pretty happy with it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if anyone is still reading this, because it's been more than three years since I updated, but I've decided to rewrite and revamp what I've already written, and continue with the story. 
> 
> Sorry to anyone who was interested in it, and had to deal with my terrible streak of not finishing things I've started. I hope I can make it up to you with this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reina was sweet enough to give me permission to attempt a fic based on her AU gif set (http://scottmartinski.tumblr.com/post/76795532190/au-stiles-scott-and-lydia-were-the-best-of). Hopefully I don't mess it up too badly.
> 
> The first part is more of an introduction than a chapter, but I'm pretty happy with it.

Seven Years Earlier.

\-----

They say your life can change in the blink of an eye. 

At the age of 9, neither Lydia, Stiles, nor Scott knew just how true that was.

They'd known each other since they were in diapers, had been friends since Lydia scolded the boys for eating sand in preschool, and were still going strong halfway through the cooties phase of their lives when everything they knew was torn apart in a matter of seconds.

It was a Wednesday, Claudia's day to drive the three of them home from school. As they drove farther from the school, there was a burst of noise from the backseat, and Claudia knew her son well enough to know that it was coming from him. Stiles and Scott were in the middle of one of their heated debates, today's topic being whether or not Spiderman's webs would be able to catch the Flash. 

The debate had turned into a full blown argument as they passed the Beacon Hills Preserve, and Claudia looked in the rear view mirror. Stiles' hands gesturing wildly, Scott's curls flying this way and that as he shook his head. Smiling softly, she sees Lydia next to her son, lost in a book, and Claudia is sure she's rolling her eyes at her friends.

The smile is wiped from her face a moment later when something darts in front of the car, and she turns the wheel frantically, doing everything in her power to keep the car on the road, to protect the children in the backseat. The noise from the back stops abruptly as the car swerves, and is replaced by terrified screams shortly after. Claudia finds herself swallowing screams of her own, trying to be brave for her son and his friends.

She knows the moment the car leaves the paved road that they're in trouble. The tires aren't getting traction in the dirt, and Claudia does everything in her power to keep the car from flipping. They're headed straight for a cluster of trees at the edge of the forest, and no matter what she does, no matter how many times she turns the wheel or slams on the breaks, the car won't stop. Nothing seems to slow their trajectory, and time seems to stand still for her as she looks in the mirror once more, at the three small faces, especially the one in the middle. She hopes that it's not the last time she'll see it. Though she's never been very religious, she finds herself praying that her son won't have to live without her, that she won't have to live without him. 

The impact comes before she can even bring her eyes back to the trees, and in her last seconds, she whispers words of love to her son and his friends, and then the world goes black.

It's more than twenty minutes before another car passes the preserve and catches sight of the smoking wreck. Parking his car, he dials 911 as he races into the line of trees.

Wrenching open the back door, he finds children in the backseat, and they stare up at him with wide eyes. The little girl is closest to him, and as he reaches out to free her from the car, she starts screaming, a piercing noise that rattles his teeth. She allows him to pull her from the car, but continues to scream, tears streaming down her face as he leaves her a safe distance from the car, and goes back for the other child. 

Contrary to the girl's reaction, the boy is silent until he's settled next to her. He takes her small hand into his own, and then begins repeating a single word, almost as if to himself.

"Stiles...Stiles?" His whispers are mingled with quiet sobs.

The man is in the middle of opening the front door of the vehicle when he hears sirens in the distance. He winces as he touches the woman's arm. He'd assumed she was unconscious, but her skin is already cool to the touch, and his heart sinks. 

He's laying her down in the grass when police cars, an ambulance, and fire truck all speed towards the preserve, lights blazing, sirens breaking the heavy silence that had settled over the scene.

A deputy rushes from one of the police cars, racing to the woman, and he's barely gotten a look at her before he's sinking to his knees, tears pouring from underneath the frames of his mirrored sunglasses. 

"Claudia...Claudia, no!"

He whips around, glasses flying from his face as he sweeps the boy into his arms. The boy wraps his slender arms around the deputy, and he looks over the boy's shoulder, reaching a hand out for the little girl. She's more cautious than the boy had been, but melts into the mans arms seconds later. 

"Where's Stiles, Scott?" The man's voice is quiet, but frantic.

"I don't know, Mr. S! The car crashed, and when I woke up, he was gone!" Before the boy can say anything else, the mans arms drop, and he sinks even lower into the ground, sobs wracking his body. 

After a minute, the deputy seems to pull himself together somewhat, and shouts to the other police officers to start a search in the woods, to look for Stiles. He looks up at the man who had called 911.

"Where's my son?" His voice is ragged and heavy with emotion.

"When I got here, it was just these three in the car. There was no one else." The deputy sagged even further into himself as the man spoke. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

The deputy gives into his emotions fully, sobs wracking his body as he slumps down, his head coming to a rest on the woman's stomach.

No matter how loud the little girl had screamed, nothing would be louder to the man that day than the deputy's mumbling about his dead wife and missing son.


	2. Sink or Swim

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the second and last part of what I'd already had written. I didn't change much, but I like it better than I did before. I'm hoping to get new parts up sooner rather than later. Enjoy!

It's hard to believe that a single day, or a single incident can change so much in a person's life. The car crash did just that. It began a chain of loss in Lydia's life. Not only had she lost Claudia, who so often had been more of a mother to her than her own, she'd lost one of her best friends. 

To this day, Stiles had not yet been found, nor had he been pronounced dead. Mr. Stilinski, now the sheriff of Beacon Hills, had not allowed it, holding on to the hope that he hadn't lost his entire family in a matter of seconds. It was safe to say that he and Lydia both felt the void of Claudia and Stiles on a daily basis, still as fresh now as it had been seven years ago.

The car crash had been the first link in a chain of loss in Lydia's life. Less than a year after the crash, her parents divorced, and her father, who she'd rarely seen when they lived in the same house, moved clear across the country to Florida. He'd started a new family a mere three months later, people who Lydia had yet to meet.

If that wasn't enough, the crash had also taken Lydia's other best friend away from her. Scott was alive and well, but the accident and loss of their friend had driven a wedge deep through their friendship, and they hadn't talked in years.

\------

After the crash, Lydia seemed to shrink into herself, content to spend her time alone, nose buried in some kind of book. She thrived on knowledge and learning new things, content that facts and books couldn't leave or hurt her.

Lydia had also taken to making herself as small and inconspicuous as possible, hiding in clothes that were too big for her, wearing her hair long, hanging down her back and in front of her face. Anything that helped her hide from curious stares and pointed fingers. She'd been lectured for years, begged by her mother to dress nicer, or spend time places other than her room or the town library. Lydia had managed to ignore her requests with great skill until the summer before her freshman year.

A few weeks before the first day of school, Natalie Martin had barged into Lydia's room and started throwing clothes into a suitcase. She announced that they'd be taking a trip to New York City, and that Lydia had no choice in the matter. Her mother's plans apparently included an overhaul of Lydia's wardrobe, regardless of whether or not it was wanted. Natalie felt that as a high schooler, Lydia should at least pretend to take pride in her appearance.

She'd gone so far as to threaten to throw away all of Lydia's favorite sweaters if she didn't comply. It might have been a bit harsh, and she knew it, but Natalie felt as if she'd lost her little girl to that crash, and she hoped that buying her things would bring her back.

They'd spent two long weeks in New York, visiting store after store. Lydia had just gone through the motions, trying hundreds of things on. She had an IQ of 170, and caught on quickly that once she'd complied with her mother for an allotted amount of time or stores, she was free to wander the city. Her saving grace was that their hotel was only a few blocks from the New York Public Library, and Lydia spent most of her free time there, losing herself in the stories, and sheer volume of books available. She also ventured into Central Park, content to watch the people as they past.

Her mother had not only changed her wardrobe, but finally put her foot down about Lydia's hair. She was more than happy to let her daughter keep her hair long, but it had grown to her waist, and she thought that a change would do her good. She'd dragged Lydia to the hair salon and demanded that they take at least a foot off. Lydia choked back tears as she watched the strands of hair drop to the floor, and had spent the rest of the night curled up in bed, trying not to think about what her mother was doing.

Logically, she knew that her mother meant well, and that it was easier to go with the changes she wanted to make than argue with her, but Lydia wasn't the type of girl to draw attention to herself, and it seemed that her mother's intention was exactly that. The clothes she'd bought for Lydia were tighter than she usually wore, and much shorter, and although Lydia was comfortable with her body, that didn't mean she wanted to show it off.

Once Mrs. Martin was satisfied, they returned to Beacon Hills, where Lydia hid in her room until the first day of school. She'd made sure to hide at least two of her favorite sweaters under her bed before they left for their trip in case her mother followed through with her threats, and slept in them almost every night, trying to keep some semblance of her former. She often found herself clutching at hair that wasn't there, and when her hands grasped only empty air, she could feel something in her chest tighten in a way she was far too used to.

The night before the first day of school, she had an anxiety attack that lasted almost three hours, the only reason she'd fallen asleep being sheer exhaustion. What seemed like mere minutes later, her mother was barging into her room and pulling the covers off Lydia, forcing her out of bed and into the shower. 

Going through the motions was something that Lydia had gotten very good at over the years, and soon she was slipping into clothes of her mother's choosing, and then sitting in front of her mirror as Mrs. Martin took control of her hair and much to her chagrin, makeup.

As she stared into space, her eyes caught the only picture she had of her and Stiles, taken a year before the crash. She'd kept it in a frame on her dresser, and reached out for it. She barely recognized the small redheaded girl in the picture as herself, the one with the pigtails and bright smile, complete with missing front tooth. She remembered vividly that she'd been laughing at something Stiles had done. In the picture he'd been sticking his tongue out at his father, who'd been making fun of his newly buzzed hair.

Before she could stop herself, a tear ran down her cheek. There wasn't a day since the accident that she hadn't thought about Stiles, but besides the anniversary of the crash, she didn't allow herself to mourn. Trying to brush the tear away before her mother saw, she took a deep breath. Even at 9, they'd talked about high school, and how they wanted to be popular. Stiles always said he'd be the king of Beacon Hills High, and a sob tore through Lydia as she realized he'd never even get the chance to try.

Her mother looked away from her hair and frowned when she saw Lydia's tears, sinking down next to her on the bench. Setting the hair dryer on the table, she wrapped her arm tightly around Lydia's thin shoulders.

"Oh, honey. What's wrong?"

Taking deep breaths, Lydia tried to calm herself down, but the tears kept coming. Mrs. Martin stroked Lydia's hair, trying to soothe her daughter. When she'd managed to catch her breath, Lydia wiped at her eyes, looking up and catching her mother's gaze in the mirror.

"I still miss him, Mom," she hiccuped.

Mrs. Martin smiled sadly, looking at the picture laying on the table.

"I know you do, sweetie." Leaning in, she pressed a kiss to Lydia's forehead, squeezing her tightly once more before standing up and resuming the task of taming Lydia's wild mane of fiery hair.

Taking the picture in her hands, Lydia ran her finger around the frame, tracing the tacky letters that had come on the frame, declaring Lydia and Stiles 'Best Friends Forever' in bright colors.

"I miss you so much."

\-----

  
Where Lydia seemed to shrink after the accident, Scott flourished.

Not to say that he didn't mourn the loss of his friend, but he handled things in a much different way than Lydia had. He spent a lot of time talking to his mother about what had happened, waking up more times than not in the middle of the night and walking to her room when she wasn't on shift. Melissa did her best to assure him that wherever Stiles was, she was sure he was okay, but he knew that she was just as unsure as he was about the fate of his best friend.

Scott's parents had also divorced in the time since the accident, but Scott had taken it much better than Lydia. He'd always been closer to his mother, and knew that she was happier without his father in the picture. For the first few years of their divorce, he shuttled back and forth between them from one side of Beacon Hills to the other, until his father had been relocated to Washington D.C. It had been years since he'd seen his father, but Scott was perfectly happy to live with his mother, and endure the infrequent phone calls from his father when he had a free minute.

Two years after the crash, Scott joined the town's lacrosse team, despite his asthma. He wasn't the best player, but he and Stiles had been planning to join for years, and he wasn't about to go back on the last promise he'd made his best friend. There was no denying that Scott had heart, even if he didn't have the skills to match, but he was also the type of person to make friends easily, and soon found himself close to Isaac and Danny, and though neither would ever admit it, he and Jackson could also be considered friends.

Scott did his best during the first year to remain close to Lydia, but she'd done a very good job at closing herself off. She'd always been closer to Stiles than Scott, anyways. As they got older, they didn't have many classes together, but Scott tried hard to make sure he at least said hello to Lydia when he saw her. She did little more than offer him a small smile before hurrying wherever she was headed. Scott hadn't heard her speak in years.

The hardest part for Scott had always been seeing Stiles' dad around town. Mr. Stilinski had thrown himself into his work. Though Scott had lost his best friend, the Sheriff had lost his whole family, and Scott couldn't imagine how he kept himself going. It was rare for Scott to see him now without a few days worth of stubble, permanently dark circles under his eyes that went along with the perpetually sullen expression he wore.

As Scott got older, he tried not to think about Stiles too much, only hoping that if he was still alive, his best friend was okay, or that if he had been killed, that he hadn't suffered.

Scott spent much of the summer before ninth grade with Isaac, practicing lacrosse. Though their season wasn't until Spring, they both had hopes of making first line. Sometimes Danny and Jackson would join them, when they weren't busy travelling the world. Scott and Isaac had joined them in a trip to the beach for the last few days before school started, and they all came back tan and ready to start the next step in their lives.

\-----

Isaac had slept over the night before school started, and they were both woken up by Melissa and the smell of pancakes. She spoke excitedly to them over breakfast, and Scott rolled his eyes at her fondly.

"Mom, it's really not a big deal."

Smacking him gently on the shoulder, Melissa scoffed.

"Of course it is, Scott. My baby is in high school. I'm allowed to be excited about it." Scott blushed and rolled his eyes when Isaac snickered. "You might not be blood, but I'm very excited for you too, Isaac."

Melissa ruffled his hair on her way to the sink, and it was his turn to blush as Scott laughed at him. Isaac gave him the finger while Melissa's back was still turned.

"I have a shift this morning. Do you boys want a ride to school, or are you going to take your bikes?"

"Bikes," Scott mumbled through a mouthful of bacon. "It'd be super embarrassing to get driven to school by your mom on the first day of high school. Almost as bad as taking the bus."

"Well, excuse me."

Melissa leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of Scott's head, and then Isaac's, whose face turned even redder.

"You're getting so old. That means I am, too," she said with a frown. "Good luck at school, boys. Don't get into any trouble."

A few minutes later they started their ride to school, talking about lacrosse, and what they thought high school was going to be like. Jackson and Danny were waiting for them in front of the school as they locked their bikes up, and the four of them pushed through the front doors together, ready to face high school together.


End file.
